Rethinking the Debt in Newfoundland & Labrador

Is there a progressive answer to how Newfoundland & Labrador’s debt could be managed while avoiding crippling austerity?
Is there a progressive answer to how Newfoundland & Labrador’s debt could be managed while avoiding crippling austerity?
The truth is even simpler than it was last year. The province, despite seven years of austerity, is even closer
The 2019 NL provincial election is just eight days away, and yesterday marks three years since the #NLRising rally on
Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old Swede, has jolted the world awake by simply telling a hard truth: adults have stolen her
The 2019 NL provincial election is just eight days away, and yesterday marks three years since the #NLRising rally on Confederation Hill, organized by the NL Federation of Labour. I was invited to sing a couple of songs, so I took the opportunity to write a new one, directly addressing the 2016 Liberal austerity budget. Out came ‘Go Away Dwight and Cathy’, which singled out cuts to education and library closures, cuts to healthcare, and the ‘deficit reduction levy’. The 2016 Liberal budget was an attack on the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, there is no doubt about that. But people spoke out. The rally worked, to some degree. The song? The downfall of writing political songs is that they are only usually relevant to a situation for a short period of time, however, they will always remain historically significant. ‘Go Away Dwight and Cathy’ never gets much airplay these…
Political shakeups in the Big Land sent Lela Evans & Jordan Brown to the House of Assembly. Now they're working
If Dwight Ball has learned anything amid all the turmoil and unrest of his first mandate, it’s that it can’t
"I made a commitment to my people and I’m going to live and die with that commitment. I’m going to
Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old Swede, has jolted the world awake by simply telling a hard truth: adults have stolen her generation’s future because we have not confronted the climate crisis. “I don’t want you to be hopeful,” she tells us, “I want you to panic. I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if the house is on fire, because it is.” Her words have inspired millions of children globally to demand real action from their political leaders. This message is an essential one for Newfoundland and Labrador’s upcoming election. Greta and her generation know all too well that to have any chance of a liveable climate for most of us, global temperature increases must be kept below two degrees of warming. To do this, emissions have to drop steeply, reaching zero—no emissions at all—by 2050. It would have been a…
In Newfoundland and Labrador, the lack of political debate on the future of the offshore means the body politic is
Changing climates and municipal regulations may have unpredictable effects on the island’s black bear—also known as 'dump bear'—population.
The time has come for Newfoundland and Labrador to seize the opportunity to be a national leader and set ourselves
As promised in response to the budget/not-a-budget pre-election kick off, I thought it would be useful to take a deeper look at what the Liberals have accomplished in their four years in office. Halfway through the election campaign is as good a time as any. Everything old is new again. As both the Liberals and the Progressive Conservatives have now released their “costed” platforms, it’s probably a good idea to think back to where we were when the parties went through this exercise in 2015. Memories of Elections Past In the spring of 2015, Progressive Conservative premier Paul Davis brought down an austerity budget in response to the collapse in oil prices and the sudden realization that the good times of the previous decade had gone bust. Budget ’15 projected staggering deficits and proposed a series of tax increases (including a controversial HST increase) and a public sector attrition plan…
Is corporate concentration a central part of the province’s long-term strategy for the fishery? How does that benefit Newfoundlanders and
There was something weird spotted in the sky above Main Brook on Newfoundland's Great Northern Peninsula in January 2020.
“We just started last week. I feel like this is the beginning of something.”
Liberals’ Speech from the Throne indicates Budget 2017 will deliver more of the same.
Lake Melville is being watched closely by all three major political parties, who see potential opportunity against independent incumbent Perry
Voters do not have the ability to give properly informed consent so far in the 2021 election. That's a major
Find out where candidates stand on issues including the province’s changing demographics, paths forward for its troubled economy, climate change,
St. John’s songwriter rewrites classic Newfoundland song “The Government Game” in response to the Liberal government’s austerity budget.
Lake Melville is being watched closely by all three major political parties, who see potential opportunity against independent incumbent Perry
Voters do not have the ability to give properly informed consent so far in the 2021 election. That's a major
Find out where candidates stand on issues including the province’s changing demographics, paths forward for its troubled economy, climate change,
“We need to stand together and show that we are more than the quaint people hanging clothes in tourist commercials.”
Lake Melville is being watched closely by all three major political parties, who see potential opportunity against independent incumbent Perry
Voters do not have the ability to give properly informed consent so far in the 2021 election. That's a major
Find out where candidates stand on issues including the province’s changing demographics, paths forward for its troubled economy, climate change,
Minister Gerry Byrne’s recent comment that the filibuster served as a deterrent for women entering politics told only part of the story.
With more women listed on the ballot than ever before, candidates and advocates highlight their experiences—and barriers to political participation.
With the premier out of the picture, it is harder to hide the hungry abyss at the heart of Newfoundland
If Dwight Ball has learned anything amid all the turmoil and unrest of his first mandate, it’s that it can’t
As residents and groups ramp up direct action efforts while resistance to austerity grows, some observers are calling for movement to embrace mutual aid.
Lake Melville is being watched closely by all three major political parties, who see potential opportunity against independent incumbent Perry
Voters do not have the ability to give properly informed consent so far in the 2021 election. That's a major
Find out where candidates stand on issues including the province’s changing demographics, paths forward for its troubled economy, climate change,
Jacinda Beals Band releases new song in an effort to save Muskrat Falls and the Grand River.
If Andrew Furey wants to sell himself as a political leader who can make tough decisions in these difficult times,
With the premier out of the picture, it is harder to hide the hungry abyss at the heart of Newfoundland
In his own words, Dwight Ball reflects on his resignation, achievements, and legacy as the 13th Premier of Newfoundland and
For all the negative things it will do to our province, the Liberals’ austerity budget is bringing people together in a very meaningful way.
Here, people can’t afford to lose jobs. In the instance that someone does because of racist rhetoric, our failure to
“We just started last week. I feel like this is the beginning of something.”
It’s easy for white people to deny that racism exists in Newfoundland & Labrador. Black people in this province can’t
It was published almost 40 years ago, but the People’s Commission on Unemployment report reads as if it were written today.
In Labrador, the election fiasco adds another layer to the inequities imposed by a government founded on the denial of
Lake Melville is being watched closely by all three major political parties, who see potential opportunity against independent incumbent Perry
Voters do not have the ability to give properly informed consent so far in the 2021 election. That's a major
“[T]his government did not concede anything out of ‘caring’. They were drove to their knees by the pressure from the marchers…”
In Labrador, the election fiasco adds another layer to the inequities imposed by a government founded on the denial of
Nature abhors a vacuum and when the attention economy is starved of real information it will begin to produce and
Last Wednesday, after a meeting with heads of government, health officials, police, and even the local fire department, Joe Dicker
The Nalcor scandal is just the tip of the iceberg.
Lake Melville is being watched closely by all three major political parties, who see potential opportunity against independent incumbent Perry
Voters do not have the ability to give properly informed consent so far in the 2021 election. That's a major
Find out where candidates stand on issues including the province’s changing demographics, paths forward for its troubled economy, climate change,
It might sound too simple or gauche, but is it possible the personal wealth of Dwight Ball and Cathy Bennett might actually lie at the very heart of the budget about to go before the N.L. legislature?
With the premier out of the picture, it is harder to hide the hungry abyss at the heart of Newfoundland
In his own words, Dwight Ball reflects on his resignation, achievements, and legacy as the 13th Premier of Newfoundland and
And it seems to me, you ran the place like a candle in the wind... and that candle's burned out
The courage of one MHA has brought the Liberals to a tipping point at precisely the moment the people of Newfoundland and Labrador have united and found their collective voice. So where’s the coverage?
Lake Melville is being watched closely by all three major political parties, who see potential opportunity against independent incumbent Perry
Voters do not have the ability to give properly informed consent so far in the 2021 election. That's a major
Find out where candidates stand on issues including the province’s changing demographics, paths forward for its troubled economy, climate change,
Saturday’s “NL Rising” protest in St. John’s was more than just a warning from the unions. It was a show of solidarity with an explicit message for the Liberal government.
The events triggered by Covid-19 are diagnostic of fragile social arrangements that we have lacked the ability to discuss for
With the premier out of the picture, it is harder to hide the hungry abyss at the heart of Newfoundland
In his own words, Dwight Ball reflects on his resignation, achievements, and legacy as the 13th Premier of Newfoundland and
The Coywolves Shape-shifters — wild wolf, urban crackie and well camouflaged coyote have only recently merged as a species a hybrid that will turn colour, depending on land, sea, or sky change; they have no reservation, boundary, and breed prodigiously among us endlessly filling their own predatory veins with blood and bone entrails. I thought about what had come out of their ravenous faces when they expressed on tv or came to our places asking us to let them in but I did not expect to see such a muted lot for they lack any inhibition to suppress their lust with their thrusting of everyone and anyone who has lesser bloody money than they Don Gillis / St. John’s
With the premier out of the picture, it is harder to hide the hungry abyss at the heart of Newfoundland
If Dwight Ball has learned anything amid all the turmoil and unrest of his first mandate, it’s that it can’t
Is there a progressive answer to how Newfoundland & Labrador's debt could be managed while avoiding crippling austerity?
Newfoundland and Labrador needs its young people now more than ever.
In Labrador, the election fiasco adds another layer to the inequities imposed by a government founded on the denial of
Nature abhors a vacuum and when the attention economy is starved of real information it will begin to produce and
Last Wednesday, after a meeting with heads of government, health officials, police, and even the local fire department, Joe Dicker
First Nations leaders, community groups and residents march in Corner Brook, call on Liberals to rescind austerity budget.
Lake Melville is being watched closely by all three major political parties, who see potential opportunity against independent incumbent Perry
Voters do not have the ability to give properly informed consent so far in the 2021 election. That's a major
Find out where candidates stand on issues including the province’s changing demographics, paths forward for its troubled economy, climate change,